• Directed by: Freddie Francis
• Written by: Robert Bloch
• Release Date: November 10, 1967
• 100 Minutes

     Released two years after Dr Terror, Torture Garden was written by Robert Bloch, author of many things but most notably known by folk as being responsible for the novel Psycho, and was based on his own short stories. With only four segments here, the stories are given a bit more room to breathe.

Wraparound
     Dr. Diabolo (Burgess Meredith) runs a travelling carnival, where he shows a group of five quite the attraction; an effigy of Atropos where they can see their fates.
     I could write about how Torture Garden’s wrap-around is actually really interesting in its use of location and even the choice of using Atropos in people seeing their fates (ie: stories), but I’d rather take my time singing the praises of Burgess Meredith. As fantastic and reserved and quiet as Cushing was in Dr. Terror’s wrap-around, Meredith here is filled with bubbling glee, pretty much making sure his character earns the moniker of Dr. Diabolo. But what of the stories? ately, after Asylum, it’s kind of a let-down.

Enoch

     A man waiting for his uncle to die so he can get some pocket change his way crosses paths with an entity possibly eviler than he is.
     Yes, a good ol’ fashioned case of “no inheritance!” turning people into ravenous, murderous wackos. Also- Cat! What works so well about having more time to let the stories in the film unravel is that you end up not really knowing where, I’d say, three of them will go. This one is the one that benefits the best from that, in my opinion, since I forgot that the baseline for this story is a psychic, man-eating cat that demands sacrifice (in proper cat fashion, of course its food), and just keeps building up wonderfully until it gets to an ending that might not be too exciting, in terms of any twists or anything, but is still great.
     While the cat being released from its ‘tomb’ and immediately demanding the death of a homeless man is hilarious, I am so incredibly happy that they didn’t decide to have some sort of dub or voice-over to emphasize the feline’s psychic abilities, opting for an adorable close-up and sound effect. Which, by the way, all animals are cute but it doesn’t help that they didn’t seem to make any effort in getting at least a mischievous looking cat to fill the part here. I’d probably feed humans to this kitty here.
     Enoch is really enjoyable, a better start to the film than Werewolf was for Dr. Terror, and its tongue-in-cheek charm feels in line with Burgess Meredith’s great work in the set-up. Mind you, I’m a sucker for evil staring cats.

Terror over Hollywood

    A young actress desperate to make it scores a part in a film, and soon learns how her Hollywood co-stars maintain their youthful longevity.
     If you described Enoch as a sudden firecracker then Terror Over Hollywood is a quiet and controlled burn. Whereas the extra time in Enoch was spent seeing how far things would go, here it goes towards the mystery of the story and, while it is intriguing in its set-up, I can see the end result disappointing to some. Honestly, I’m someone who always feels like the story ends up with a twist that raises more questions than answers, and while that’s fine to wave away a lot of the time, here the questions brought by the twist pretty much bottoms out the premise.
     However! And this is very important – The final 30 or so seconds of this segment ends up being such an unbelievably sad gut punch that it makes up for any ill-will one might have for the rest of the story, and Beverly Adams walks away with one of the best moments of the film as a whole.

Mr. Steinway

    Dorothy Endicott gets romantically involved with a pianist she interviews, drawing ire from an unexpected source.
     Look, if your boyfriend ever tells you his piano is jealous of you then maybe you should leave.
     There’s a lot to be impressed by here, like the beautiful use of colours outside the window of the piano room being absolutely gorgeous, but Mr. Steinway might be the short that elicits the most back and forth, flip-floppy feelings. Some may not find a haunted piano that scary, some… okay, I don’t think many people will find a haunted piano that scary but the short here does some excellent work in build-up. What it doesn’t do well is find a way to wrap the story up in the same subtle-ish way that it was constructing it, instead ending off on the 1960’s film equivalent of that damn piano from Super Mario 64. Though it would have been nice to see the endgame twisted around a bit here in different ways, it’s still a lot of fun and enjoyable.

The Man Who Collected Poe

    Two Edgar Allan Poe collectors get together over drinks and some Poe-centric showing off, before things slightly fly off the jealousy rails.
     This story is to Torture Garden what ‘Disembodied Hand’ was to Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors. An absolute delight that has the same level of fun as the previously mentioned short, ‘The Man Who Collected Poe’ spends the majority of its time simply letting Cushing and Palance be, with Palance slowly but surely getting more and more manic and, more importantly, sweaty. So sweaty.
     Also, Jack Palance here falls victim to the same thing I brought up with Michael Gough in the previous film’s rundown- He never shows up in any of the Amicus portmanteaus again. I so wish he did since he is pitch perfect here, a brilliant madman against Cushing’s reserved elegance as two people nerding out about the kinds of things one can’t actually acquire in reality. It’s a fun piece that ends up having such a wonderfully wacky conclusion that it can’t help but end the storytelling section of the film on a high note.

Finale
     I think the epilogue here for the wrap-around section is actually brilliant. Yes, there are a bunch of instances of individuals speaking to the screen (there’s a few upcoming films here that do it too), but coming from Burgess, with his great cheeky performance and carnival setting, it perfectly fits the fun going attitude of the idea of Halloween, in terms of sitting around and having a ton of fun.
     Not to mention, Palance and Meredith had a few seconds to interact! This is genuinely a big thing for me any time I watch it, even though all Jack Palance does is chuckle like a lunatic with his smoke. I wish both of them had come back for some more fun in the future but alas, it was not to be.

     I used to remember this movie as just “ok”, primarily a stop gap between the initial portmanteau film and the much-enjoyed follow-up, but this viewing has actually really secured it as a pretty good follow-up all around. A great ton of fun that benefits from having a beginning involving something as ludicrously layered as a man-eating psychic cat and concludes with two great actors working themselves into a pitch. I’m sure I feel like my pure enjoyment will continue to grow the more I end up revisiting it.